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This Week in the Civil War

The Associated Press

Updated:
05/16/2014 09:05:55 AM EDT

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 18: Grant's Overland Offensive in Virginia continues.

With the bloodletting of hard combat at Spotsylvania Courthouse in Virginia now receding, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched a considerable Union force to the North Anna River as he prepared to again confront Confederate forces led by Robert E. Lee. Grant's Overland Offensive was continuing, with both sides tracking each other in an area of rain-swollen rivers and streams north of Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. On May 23, 1864, fresh fighting erupted and raged for hours during the next two days at various locations. At every turn, Lee, sought to repel the shifting Union forces and vex Grant's bid for a quick victory.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 25: Fighting in Georgia.

Union attempts to begin taking aim at Atlanta intensified this week 150 years ago in the Civil War. Fighting erupted on May 24, 1864 around a place called New Hope Church in Georgia as forces under Union Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman squared off with Confederate rivals under Gen. Joseph E. Johnson. The fighting at New Hope Church was intense and Union attackers were bloodily repulsed. Skirmishing continued through the rest of that day. More fighting erupted on May 27, 1864, in the same general area of Georgia with the Confederates repelling a Union attack, leaving a large number of dead and wounded.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, June 1: Bloody combat at Cold Harbor, Va.

Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant pressed on with fierce fighting in Virginia, his massive Union force intent on breaking the backbone of the Confederacy on its territory. But Confederate rivals in turn exacted heavy casualties on the Union foe. On June 1, 1864, Union cavalry fighters drove back one attack by Confederate forces, which were being reinforced by more troops arriving from Richmond, Va., seat of the Confederacy. Union attempts to attack the Southern forces met with heavy casualties on the federal side. The fighting raged for days along a front stretching for miles to the Chickahominy River in Virginia. By mid-June of that year, with both sides bloodied and wearied, Grant began moves to relocate his forces in an area threatening Petersburg, Va., below Richmond.

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This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, June 8: Lincoln nominated to run again for president as fighting rages.

President Abraham Lincoln was nominated by his party to seek a second term on June 8, 1864 — a major political milestone for Lincoln as he pressed on with the war. The New York Times reported on May 16, 1864, that critics had been predicting Lincoln wouldn't let any major fighting go on as he pressed for the nomination for a second term. But heavy fighting by the Union in Virginia in recent days trumped the naysayers. "The recent campaign in Virginia has very effectually silenced that calumny; for one of its most conspicuous features has been the zealous cooperation of every department of the Government and every branch of the public service ... President Lincoln has done everything in his power to insure success" in the war effort, The Times declared. It added that Lincoln was intent on the public good first and foremost. "The country may rely, with unfaltering trust, upon the supreme devotion of the President to the defence of the Government and the suppression of the rebellion," the newspaper added.

This series marking the 150th anniversary of the Civil War draws primarily from wartime dispatches credited to The Associated Press or other accounts distributed through the AP and other historical sources.